Memory self-awareness and memory self-monitoring following severe closed-head injury

Abstract

Objective: To examine the accuracy of memory self-awareness and memory self-monitoring abilities in participants with severe closed-head injury (CHI).

Design and methods: A performance-prediction paradigm was used to evaluate meta-memory abilities in 31 participants with severe CHI (>1 year post-injury) and 31 controls. To assess memory self-awareness, before completing story recall, visual reproduction and list learning memory tasks, participants predicted the amount of information they would remember for each task. Memory self-monitoring was evaluated by examining participants’ ability to increase the accuracy of their predictions following experience with each memory task.

Results: Although participants with CHI exhibited poorer recall than controls, they were equally aware of how differing task demands influence recall. They also successfully modified their predictions following task exposure.

Conclusions: Meta-memory was better preserved than actual memory performance. It may be possible to build on meta-memory skills to help patients with CHI more consistently use strategies that aid memory performance.